If I am Joe Girardi, I look at the Yankees front office, the Cubs front office, the age on the Yankees roster, and the prospects in the farm systems for both teams…and then I run to Chicago as fast as I can…

At the highest levels of the organization, there has been frustration and anger about the lack of young talent available this season as injuries mounted. The Yankees used a team-record 56 players, none you can call a high-end prospect — and there appears to be none on the horizon.

Within the industry there is a sense there will be a scapegoat or two for that, and that it will not be Girardi or GM Brian Cashman, who has a year left on his pact. Instead, two longtime organizational employees are perceived as most in peril: Damon Oppenheimer, who is in charge of the draft, and Mark Newman, who is in charge of development.

The Yankees, for all the caricatures of George Steinbrenner’s firing squad, have been mainly an insular group. Will the lack of young talent motivate them to try to reach into an organization that drafts and develops well — such as the Cardinals — to make a significant hire or two to restructure how this business is done?

Damon Oppenheimer is a waste. But, shouldn’t the guy who makes the final call on these things also be held accountable too?

Understand something about the $189 million luxury-tax threshold for next season. It isn’t really $189 million.

Each team is charged roughly $11 million for items such as insurance and pension. Thus, if the Yankees are going to get under — and I believe they are determined to do so — then they can pay their players about $178 million.

But wait. It isn’t like they could just get to $177.9 million in the offseason. They need to create spare money for promotions, potential bonuses reached and obtaining players via trade. Let’s make that a conservative $8 million.

OK, now we are talking about the Yanks having approximately $170 million for players next season. Assuming Derek Jeter picks up his option and Alex Rodriguez’s suspension is upheld, the Yanks would have six players signed for next season — Jeter, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Alfonso Soriano, Ichiro Suzuki and Vernon Wells. For luxury-tax purposes, that crew costs roughly $68.5 million.

That would leave a little more than $100 million to spend, and you can subtract about another $14million-$16 million to reach agreement with the arbitration-eligible Brett Gardner, David Robertson, Ivan Nova, Shawn Kelley and Francisco Cervelli. We can assume another $3-$4 million for five or six non-arbitration players such as David Phelps and Adam Warren.

That will leave around $80 million, and a good deal of that will be earmarked for Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson, Hiroki Kuroda — or their replacements.

You can see how quickly the money goes and why the Yanks are pretty much desperate for A-Rod’s suspension to be upheld and his $27.5 million to go away from their ledger.

It means the Yanks are going to have to count pennies elsewhere in trying to still have a deep/contending roster with the $189 million constraints.

I really hope the Yankees do find a way to get Brendan Ryan to return in 2014. They’re going to need a shortstop. I have no faith in Jeter’s ability to man that position – either well or for a prolonged period. And, I can live with no stick when it’s a glove like Ryan.

Thousands of Yankees fans were angered Tuesday night when a late shipment of Mariano Rivera bobbleheads led to confusion and long, long lines to redeem vouchers for the tardy giveaway.

“There’s a lot of mayhem, people cutting in line, aggravation,” fan Lou Licameli told WCBS 880. “It’s ridiculous. And we’re sitting here missing the majority of the game, which we bought our tickets to see. The way they handled this, someone’s head should roll over it.”

But some reportedly didn’t have to miss a single pitch. Witnesses told the New York Post that fans “in the priciest seats” had their Mo bobbleheads hand-delivered by Yankee Stadium employees.

This past Sunday according to Nielson ratings, the Astros and Indians game drew a rating of 0.0 in the greater Houston area.

ZERO-POINT-ZERO

The Houston Chronicle explains that it doesn’t necessarily mean that there wasn’t one person who tuned in, it just means that not a single, solitary Nielsen household tuned in to watch the Astros.

“There are a couple of asterisks involved here, of course,” the Houston Chronicle explained. “For one thing, Nielsen persists with the statistically supportable but still head-shaking concept that it can measure what millions of television viewers are watching by monitoring the behavior of hundreds.”

Those coming to Yankee Stadium usually must sit through several innings to see if Mariano Rivera will pitch, but fans also had to wait a few extra hours and withstand chaotically long lines Tuesday night to receive a bobblehead doll of baseball’s retiring all-time saves leader.

Rivera was feted with a lavish retirement ceremony Sunday, including Metallica performing the 13-time All-Star’s signature song, “Enter Sandman.” The celebration was to continue Tuesday with the first 18,000 fans in attendance at the Yanks’ game against Tampa Bay slated to receive a commemorative Rivera bobblehead doll.

But the giveaways hadn’t arrived at the Stadium when the gates were slated to open at 5 p.m., as thousands of fans queued up outside.

The gates opened more than 30 minutes later than usual, and the Yankees handed out vouchers instead.

An announcement was made during the middle of the third inning that vouchers could be redeemed from that point until 30 minutes after the game.

Lines formed immediately and stretched from beyond the right-field foul pole to third base on the main level, then up a ramp to another level and back down to the first level, as some fans waited several innings to scoop up their collectible figurines. Deborah Tymon, the Yankees’ Sr. VP of Marketing, said the shipment arrived shortly after 6 p.m., adding “everyone with a voucher will be receiving a bobblehead tonight.”

Norman Julius Esiason and Craig Carton could be on the verge of leaving the Madison Square Garden Network and heading for the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network, according to industry sources.

The Daily News has learned YES suits have made an offer that, if accepted, would bring WFAN’s simulcast of “The “Boomer and Carton” morning drive-time show to the pinstripe network.

Esiason/Carton’s MSG contract expires in the middle of this month. Traditionally, the incumbent network, in this case MSG, has an exclusive negotiating period, but that window has expired.

This has allowed YES, which already airs the simulcast of Mike (Sports Pope) Francesa’s WFAN afternoon drive show, to begin negotiations to acquire rights to Esiason/Carton’s FAN simulcast. YES did make a competitive bid, a TV mole said.

MSG now has the right to match YES’ offer if it wants to keep “The Boomer and Carton Show.”

MSG brass now has a big decision to make. Stepping back, and looking at this situation on a number of levels, it would be stunning if MSG declines to keep Esiason/Carton on its network.

The only impediment would be if YES has offered CBS, WFAN’s parent company, outrageously stupid money for the simulcast rights. Then again, when it comes to getting what he wants, price is usually not an object for James (Guitar Jimmy) Dolan.

So if matching YES’ offer is not cost prohibitive for Dolan and Co., then the Garden has a number of solid reasons to retain the rights to “The Boomer and Carton Show.”

If this happens, I wonder if B&C will continue to be so pro-Mets? In any event, it beats airing infomercials about male sexual performance.

With 9 minutes, 31 seconds left in the first quarter of the Philadelphia Eagles’ opener at Washington earlier this month, quarterback Michael Vick glanced over to the sideline to get the next play.

While coach Chip Kelly spoke into Vick’s headset, assistant R.J. Harvey fanned out a series of colored blades and held them up for Vick and center Jason Kelce to see.

Jill Cakert’s phone buzzed and she read a text message from her nephew, Jonathan Cakert, that read, “Signalfan in play.”

The Ventnor native looked up at her TV, saw the Eagles’ coach brandishing her invention, and screamed.

“We had some people over watching the game with us and when we all saw it, we started hugging and crying,” Cakert said in a phone interview. “It was crazy. I’ve never been so happy. I’m still riding the high.”

Hours earlier, Cakert had been crying for a different reason.

Earlier that morning, the Atlantic City High School graduate had attended the funeral and burial of her mother, Edith Sherman, who passed away Sept. 7 at age 92.

Later that evening, physically and emotionally exhausted, she returned to her Ventnor home, sank onto her couch with her son, Doug, husband, Buck, and other family and friends, and turned on the Eagles’ game against the Redskins.

“I was supposed to be at FedEx Field with my cousin (Jonathan), but obviously I couldn’t go to the game,” Doug Cakert said in a phone interview. “He was sitting up in the cheap seats and noticed that they were using my mom’s Signalfan. That’s when he sent the text.

“We’re not a real emotional family. But when it was shown on TV, we all started screaming. We needed something like that after such a difficult day.”

Jill Cakert invented the Signalfan in 2007. A former standout softball player for Atlantic City and Temple University, she was looking for a way to make it easier for batters to see signals from the third-base coach.

She created a device that features six 11-inch blades, which are colored black, blue, green, red, white and yellow. The blades are held together with a screw and unfold like a fan. Baseball and softball coaches could use various combinations of blades to signify different plays such as bunts and steals.

Over the years, it became popular among field hockey and softball coaches. She even sold one to a high school football coach in Texas.

She sent one to Kelly on Aug. 27 after noticing the new Eagles coach was using giant placards with pictures of things like cheesesteaks, Rocky and the Liberty Bell to send signals from the sideline.

If I ever saw this used in a baseball game, I would puke. That said, I suspect, in the near future, baseball batters and runners will be wearing wrist bands that receive visual signals/instructions from the coaches and/or managers – eliminating the need for signals from the base coaches. Pitchers and catchers? There, it will take longer for them to break away from the tradition and current signal system.